Putin escalating the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the consequences of Brexit for Ukraine.

The British public have cast their votes, and Britain will be leaving the EU, to the utter delight of Putin.

The leading Conservative duo of the Brexit movement viz. Boris Johnson, the Donald Trump of the UK and an admirer of Putin, and  Michael Gove, the Dmitry Medvedev to Boris Johnson, will be gearing up to take over the political reigns from David Cameron.

 Top: Boris, Gove, Farage. Bottom: Trump, Medvedev, Le Pen

Like the Putin admirer Marine Le Pen, whose party is financially supported by Putin, Nigel Farage, another admirer of Putin, could not contain his glee at the outcome of this referendum.

And news just in,

"Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

Mr Cameron made the announcement in a statement outside Downing Street after the final result was announced.

He said he would attempt to "steady the ship" over the coming weeks and months but that "fresh leadership" was needed." (BBC News : Friday, 24 June) (my emphasis)

A week ago,  Pavel Polityuk wrote about the concerns of Kiev should Britain vote to leave the EU.

"Politicians in Kiev worry that a vote by Britain to leave the European Union would weaken the EU's support for Ukraine and undermine its resolve to stand up to Russia.
.....

Britain has pushed for the EU to renew sanctions on Russia imposed after the Crimea annexation, but other EU countries want them lifted, so if the country leaves the bloc, that could soften the EU stance, Ukrainian politicians say.

"Brexit will seriously compromise the unity of the EU on the issue of sanctions," [Serhiy] Leshchenko (right) said. "The EU will lose one of the main lobbyists for sanctions against Russia." (Reuters : Fri Jun 17, 2016) (my emphasis)

These concerns of Serhiy Leshchenko are further amplified by the fact that Putinversteher Walter Steinmeir, and Italian PM Matteo Renzi, have recently increased the call for sanctions against Putin's Russia to be, if not completely rescinded, then alleviated. 

Let us remind ourselves that,

"Italian companies have signed deals worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion) with Russian firms at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Friday.
 ...
"These are deals which are all legitimate within the context of the sanctions regime because we respect all the rules," Renzi told reporters. He said the accords "potentially open the way to deals worth between 4 and 5 billion euros". (Reuters : Mail Online : 17 June 2016) (my emphasis)

Renzi further repeated that,

"....sanctions against Russia should not be renewed automatically." (ibid Reuters : Mail Online)

Let us also remind ourselves that,

"last month it was Steinmeier who suggested that,

"I hope that by the end of June there will be progress and then we can see if we can reduce the sanctions step by step, or if we stay with the measures we have right now," Steinmeier told reporters on a visit to Tallinn on May 27." (Turkish Weekly : June 19, 2016) (my emphasis)

Both Steinmeier and Renzi, together with Putin's French and Greek supporters in the EU, will now be in the driving seat over the renewal of the EU sanctions against Putin's Russia.

As also reported by the Moscow Times,

"The mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Twitter that “Without the U.K., there will be nobody in the EU to defend sanctions against Russia so zealously.” (Moscow Times : Jun. 24 2016) (my emphasis)

As for the Minsk2 proposals; as I stated in my blog entry of Sunday, 19 June 2016, upon a Brexit,

"..Putin's 'friends' in the EU will be in the driving seat when the EU's sanctions against him come up for renewal in July of this year. 

"We can then also expect the Minsk2 protocols to be thrown into the dustbin of history."

The best indicator that this is about to happen lies in the fact that, 

"Militants mount[ed] more than 260 attacks over past week.

Combined Russian-separatists forces increasingly use unmanned aerial vehicles to spy on Ukrainian army and adjust fire in the combat zone. 

"25 flights of drones were spotted over the past week, with five of them conducted reconnaissance operations from the territory of Russian federation," the chief of the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine's Defence Ministry Vadym Skibytskiy stated." (UT : Jun. 22, 2016) 

Expect this escalation by Putin's Russian soldiers and rebel proxies in eastern Ukraine to increase in ferocity. 

(to be continued)